


Scream

by entropically



Category: RWBY
Genre: (nonsexual and nonconsensual sadism), Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Defeat, Gen, Sadism, Taunting, physical and mental suffering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 19:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21379186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entropically/pseuds/entropically
Summary: Set during the ending of volume 3. With her plan already set successfully in motion, Cinder takes her time wrapping up her fight with Professor Ozpin. Ozpin does his best to hold on to his pride.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	Scream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyOfSparrows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOfSparrows/gifts).

> For LadyofSparrows with the prompt of "muffled death scream". Thank u for sharing my love of terrible things.

Ozpin sets his face in a stoic grimace, even through the ragged breaths, as he looks up at Cinder. He's fallen down to one knee, his other leg deeply pierced with one of her arrows. His aura is failing.  _ I'm getting too old for this, aren't I? _ , he jokes to himself. He can just barely hear another voice, one usually buried deep within him:  _ It's time. _ He knows. But still he looks up with defiant pride. He won't surrender. He won't beg.

"You know," Cinder drawls as she saunters toward him with burning hands, "For all the talk I've heard about you, I still don't see anything but an old man clutching his cane." She looks down at him and chuckles. "Poor thing. Shall we end this already,  _ headmaster _ ?" Her tone mocks him; it's almost enough to make him question who he dares think he is call himself responsible for this school. But he won't let himself fall into those thoughts, not yet.

Ozpin tries to gather his breath. He tries to summon the strength to make a last attack against Cinder as she stands here, right in front of him, taunting him by leaving herself open to the blow she knows won't come. Instead, he looks straight into her burning eyes and speaks with all the calm that his struggling lungs will allow. "I am not the last. There are still those who will stop you. Who will stop  _ her _ ." He pauses to catch his breath, and to block the memories that try to bubble up to his awareness. "There are those who know this world we've built is worth fighting for."

"How poetic," Cinder teases. She materializes another bolt slowly; she wants to savor this moment, the image of this fragile old egotist brought down to his knees. Ozpin won't be running anywhere at this point, she's sure, but she draws up a circle of flame to surround him anyway. She wants him to dwell on just how trapped he is. "Too bad." She makes to fire at him with her glass, but instead she draws back and lands a kick against an already injured shoulder, sending him tumbling backward with a pained groan. And Cinder can't hide her smirk as she comes to stand over him, digging into his chest with her heel.

The fall knocked out Ozpin's last wind, and he can hardly catch his breath now. Cinder can't decide whether she's relieved or disappointed not to be subjected to any more of his drivel. "I suppose it's time to wrap this up," she sighs, and summons a row of glass spikes hovering all around him.

He closes his eyes, refusing to give her the satisfaction of watching his eyes dart fearfully around the range of weapons. He isn't surprised when he feels one pierce through his good leg and into the stone floor, but he is surprised to find his scream cut off by a crushed windpipe. When his eyes jolt open, he finds Cinder looking down from right above his face, smiling wickedly and grinding the toe of her shoe into his throat.

"Now now, headmaster, don't look at me like that. Shouldn't you be thanking me? You wouldn't want to wake the children."

Ozpin shuts his eyes again. _The students._ They'll be okay. He has to believe that. They're good kids, strong kids. They'll be okay.

Cinder sighs. "It's been fun, but I suppose I have more to do." She swirls her fingers; the flames rise around Ozpin and the glass bolts bob in the air. "One or the other of these should finish you off. Have a good night, headmaster." She gives a little wave over her shoulder as she turns away. She leaves the bolts hovering in the air, the flames roaring.

Ozpin waits, listening to the crackle of the flame drown out the clinking of heels down the long corridor. His time has come, sooner than he realized. All he can do now is believe in the others, and wait. He will die as nobly as a man abandoned in a crumbling castle can. He did not beg. He did not surrender. He did not scream.

**Author's Note:**

> In retrospect, I didn't really deliver on my promise, since it wasn't exactly his dying scream that was muffled. Whoops. Also, is this how Cinder's powers work? I have no idea, I'm just BSing, does anyone even know?


End file.
